Outsourcing to Latin America the solution for Testing in Spain?

Something strange is happening in Spain. Everyone has probably seen the news and knows about the more then 5 million people without a job!!

But for Testing something else is happening? In 2011 more and more companies in Spain have requested Testing resources. Although a big percentage still is related to international companies also Spanish companies are requesting more and more Testers.

What are companies looking for:

Most companies are looking for “functional” testers with experience in a Test management tool (Quality Center/Testlink etc) and some automation skills with for example Selenium or Quick Test Pro.

The problem is that there are not so many people that have more then 2 years of experience and look for a job. Most of the resources with Testing skills are already employed. In the past year this situation has resulted in Job hopping, Salary increases and talent hunting. As the companies are in a urgent need they are willing to offer better salaries, although the rates that companies pay to consultancies have not really increased.

Currently there are still Testing requests but the market is somewhat stuck. All testers with some experience have a TestABil, Inqalabs, Sogeti, MTP past and have all a pretty well paid job. The rates and salaries cannot increase a lot so it is really hard to find Testers.

In my opinion there are only 2 ways to come out of this situation:

1. Trainees/Juniors:

There are more then 5 million people without a job, a lot of them with academic titles. Consultancies and clients should agree on hiring trainees and give them good training and support. In my experience a well trained resource can after 2 weeks be operational as a funtional tester (manual) tester. This resource would need support and that is where the more experience testers come into the picture. After 6 months there will be a new generation of Testers and who knows some real talents will come out of that.

This although will mean an impact on the companies (people need time to get up to speed) and also the current (so popular) testers (the market will be less crazy and some new talents will come available).

2. Outsourcing to Latin America

The other option is outsourcing. There are still a lot of good testing resources available on the other side of the ocean and they are all willing to start. The benefits for the companies are clear (better rates, now worries about jobhopping, long term relation) but there are also counterparts (dependency, infrastructure, good support and communication needs).

In my experience it takes at least 2 to 4 weeks for an outsource tester to be up to speed. But they will bring already experience which a new tester will not bring.

Conclusion:

Although my preferred option would be 1 (Trainees) I am afraid that spanish companies are not willing to invest (directly or indirectly) in training new Testers. The risk of training and coachin someone and loosing him without any recompensation are to high and the companies are not protected. In my experience, when we gave a ISTQB training to our people 50% got another job in less then 6 months (Who is paying the preparation cost).

Also the companies want results yesterday!

Also they are not willing to pay more and most of the Testers should be tired of jobhopping by now.

So on the short term the best solution would be outsourcing. This unfortunately will not help Spain unemployment…